The following includes information that may be useful in understanding the present invention(s). It is not an admission that any of the information provided herein is prior art, or material, to the presently described or claimed inventions, or that any publication or document that is specifically or implicitly referenced is prior art.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of sewage backflow prevention devices and more specifically relates to a sewage stopper system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Modem homes usually have multiple piping systems that enter and exit the home. According to Perry's Chemical Engineers' Handbook, industrial piping is defined as “a system of tubes used to convey fluids from one location to another.” Early American piping systems were created primarily of wood, notably in the West, where durable redwood material was readily available. Today, industrial process piping is manufactured from a variety of materials such a fiberglass, glass, steel, aluminum, plastic, copper, and concrete. Perhaps the best known use for piping is plumbing, which, in addition to providing water supplies to homes and businesses, also serves to dispatch sewage waste.
While most residential piping enters the home and terminates, at least one piping system is like a continuation of another. For example, fresh potable water enters a house so that it can be used for washing clothes, bathing, drinking, cleaning, watering plants, and removing human waste. The majority of this water, after being used, becomes unsanitary and must be removed from the residence. The piping systems that remove the dirty water are called sewer systems.
Unlike potable water lines, sewer systems are not under pressure. They rely on gravity to drain the water from the business or residence all the way to the treatment plant. To accomplish this, the piping system must be installed on a 1½% downhill gradient, or drop approximately ¼ inch for every 10 linear feet. This allows the water to flow in the downhill direction but not so fast that the water velocity is faster than the solids that it is carrying. If the water runs faster, the solids stay behind and create a plug in the pipe. This shallow slope creates a delicate balance between flowing and not flowing. It doesn't take very much to upset this balance either. Crews for utility systems, out of necessity, work daily making repairs, unplugging clogged sewer mains, and doing preventative maintenance for these pipes. When a sewer main does become clogged, the sewer backs up in the system and flows out at the first available openings. These openings are usually sewer manhole covers, but are often the drains and toilets of residences. When this happens, the extremely pathogenic environment that is created necessitates the evacuation of the home until a complete sanitary cleanup and repairs to structures have been made. The volume of sewer water that overflows into the residence is only limited by the response time of the utility repair crews. Check valves are mostly unsuitable to stop overflows because the pressure required to open them is not present in sewer systems. A need exists for an inexpensive, easy to install, and reliable method to prevent sewage backflows into residences.
Various attempts have been made to solve the above-mentioned problems such as those found in U.S. Pat. No. 1,354,879 to Harry Bolajtd et al, U.S. Pub. No. 2011/0132474 to James T. Reese et al; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,074,686 to Bernhard Kessel. This art is representative of sewage backflow prevention means. None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the invention as claimed.
Ideally, a sewage backflow prevention device should provide reliability and ease of installation, and yet, would operate reliably and be manufactured at a modest expense. Thus, a need exists for a reliable sewage stopper system to avoid the above-mentioned problems.